Varanasi Blasts & the Rath Yatras.

Whatever I want to say has been captured well in the following two articles. I'm posting some selected snippets, do take time to read the original articles.

Varanasi's Religion by Sagarika Ghose on IBNLive -

Never was there a greater contrast between Hinduism and Hindutva. Three bomb blasts shattered the calm of 2,500-year-old Varanasi on Tuesday, March 7. Immediately, the political party that claims to defend all Hindus, swung into action implying that this was an attack on Hindus. The BJP disrupted Parliament, the Lok Sabha was adjourned, BJP leaders unleashed rhetoric about "minority appeasement" and argued that the killers were emboldened by various policy initiatives of the UPA. But as Hindutva pointed fingers at "minorities", "anti-nationals" and "religious fundamentalists", what did Hinduism, by contrast, do? Hindutva blustered but Hinduism turned to prayer. Hinduism turned its back on calls to religious hatred. Hinduism came in large numbers to donate blood. Brave, forgiving diyas floated as a holy city asserted its magnificient dignity. Let the demagogues yell, whispered the Ganga, but I, too, am here.

Now the BJP is all set to launch its twin National Integration yatras, to be led by party president Rajnath Singh and leader of the Opposition L K Advani. The yatras, Advani recently said, are a response to the "wildfire of minorityism" lit by this government. In fact, "minorityism", according to the BJP, is the main reason for the Varanasi blasts. Lets examine the "appeasement" hypothesis. If I'm a "Muslim terrorist" and the UPA center is busy trying to appease me, would I suddenly set off bombs in Varanasi knowing that in any case the government is trying to please me? Not only is the logic linking "muslim appeasement" and the blasts a little faulty but this time Advani seems to be quite out of touch with the realities of a liberalising new economy. In 1989-90, Advani launched the famous Ram Rath yatra which catapulted the BJP to the national mainstream after the Shah Bano judgement and Mandal report had created a mood of Hinduism under siege. Yet India is now a different country from 1989-90. Also, sadly - indeed tragically - society is already doing what the BJP's politics is trying to gamely follow. We are already a hopelessly ghettoized society in which Muslims, even celebrity Muslims, find it difficult to find homes in south Mumbai or south Delhi.

However in spite of this daily social catastrophe, there is a new matter-of-fact togetherness: Aamir Khan, Tabu, Irfan Pathan and Munaf Patel are symbols of how a competitive talent-based society has no place for discrimination. Advani's rath yatra is hoping to capitalise on the isolation of the Hindu, but it is an isolation that the Hindu clearly doesn't feel. Many who remember the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition were expecting riots the day after the Varanasi blasts. The fact that there was no riot, that there was not even a whisper of communal trouble, that in fact Hindus and Muslims joined in condemnation, shows that we as a society may be polarised and ghettoised, but at the same time, we are looking forward not backward.

Will middle India speak up? by Barkha Dutt at NDTV.com -

Despite the lonely corner non -believers like myself inhabit, I am reasonably confident that the ordinary Indian is as mystified as me by the hysterical debate that has consumed our media these past few weeks.

The theme song, actually it was a duet, went something like this-Hindutva is simmering under the surface, waiting to leap out from the political grave into the warm embrace of a new life; and "moderate Muslims" must speak, not just speak, they must shout, scream, holler, be heard, so that there is no "backlash."

All generalizations are a gamble, but I would take the risk and say that Middle India (as distinct from both the fundamentalists and the liberals) wants to travel down the Middle Path; the age of shrill rhetoric is over, Indians, are increasingly impatient with extremism of any kind, in any faith, Hindu or Muslim.

I'm pretty sure that the ordinary Hindu, angry as he or she may be about the assault in Varanasi, and before that, Ayodhya, will also find L K Advani's Rath Yatra disingenuous and unnecessary; a poor caricature of himself.

I'm equally sure, that if I were a Muslim in India today, I'd feel under siege; claustrophobically caught between those who claim to speak on my behalf, and those who are demanding that I must speak up as a "moderate." Lost in the cacophony of argument is the clarity of exactly what we are asking them to speak up against.

Are we becoming like the United States? Fearful of minorities? Alarmed at their assertion, superior and scornful about their conventions? Unable to see them as anything but the "other?" Fifty-nine years after India was born, in a country where there are more Muslims than there are in Pakistan, we are still asking Muslims to wear their nationalism like an identity card; we are still asking for proof of loyalty. This is not their failure. It is ours.

Update: Vir Sanghvi has written a column in Hindustan Times on the same issue.